By Mathieu Rosemain
LONDON (Reuters) -Societe Generale shares dropped more than 6% in early Monday trade after France's third-biggest bank said it expected little if any growth in annual sales over the coming years in a keenly-awaited strategic plan from its new CEO.
Slawomir Krupa took over in May, charged with reviving a bank that has slipped behind French leader BNP Paribas and some other European rivals amid a costly exit from Russia last year and concerns it is too reliant on volatile investment banking.
SocGen said it would target a 9-10% return on tangible equity ratio (ROTE) in 2026. It will also pay out 40-50% of reported net income to shareholders in dividends and buybacks from 2024 onwards.
Both targets are slightly below previous pledges that saw ROTE reaching about 10% in 2025 and a payout ratio of 50%.
It also said its new targets were based on annual revenue growth expectations between zero and 2% between 2022 and 2026.
A SocGen veteran and former head of its investment bank, Krupa said he would streamline the bank's activities but didn't elaborate.
"We will strengthen the group by shaping a simplified business portfolio, while taking the right actions to build-up capital and increase flexibility, structurally improve our operating leverage and maintain our best-in-class risk management", Krupa said in a statement.
The share price decline put SocGen on course for the biggest one-day drop since March.
(Additional reporting by Tassilo Hummel; Writing by Mathieu RosemainEditing by Ingrid Melander and Mark Potter)
